Fewer regrets with Mail Goggles

Sending ill-considered e-mail whilst drunk or otherwise in a less-than-optimal state of mind is apparently a more common problem than I thought. Common enough that Google Labs has introduced a feature designed to help prevent it.

Mail Goggles makes sure you really do want to send that late-night dispatch by forcing you to solve “a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you’re in the right state of mind,” Google engineer Jon Perlow explains on the Official Gmail Blog. You have to give him credit for citing examples from personal experience: “Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together.”

Presumably, the theory is that if you’re clear-headed enough to go fetch a calculator, then you probably pass the test anyway. Of course, you can also solve any Mail Googles problem just by pasting it into a Google search box and using Google’s built-in calculator — but, again, that requires some thought and forces a pause for further evaluation.

Incidentally, I’ve always thought that requiring commenters to answer simple math problems would be an interesting alternative to CAPTCHAs. It’ll be interesting to see if Mail Goggles inspires more people to run with similar ideas.